Pumpkin Chocolate Cake with Pumpkin Frosting

Happy Wednesday! This doesn’t happen often but I feel like this week is flying by. No complaining here. Winking smile

We’ve got a jam-packed post with WIAW eats, an awesome 2 minute microwave pumpkin chocolate cake and the Chickbands giveaway winners at the end so let’s get to it!

Strawberry coconut oats for breakfast.

I’ve been waking up at 7am which is about 45 minutes earlier than my normal wakeup. It’s great because I feel much more productive, it’s not so great because earlier breakfasts lead to earlier hunger for lunch.

I fought the hunger for a bit and actually went for a test run at lunch to see how my knee would hold up. It still didn’t feel 100% but I wanted to see how running would feel so I could figure out what to do with my training plan between now and the half marathon. I was supposed to run 12 miles as my last long run but decided to just test it out with a shorter run instead. Good news, after 5 miles it felt fine! It still feels a bit “off” when I’m not running but I’m pretty much convinced after reading Chelsey’s post that it’s a sore/slightly inflamed IT band as my symptoms are almost identical. So, I’ve basically been stretching every hour and finally bought myself a foam roller today. O-U-C-H. Now I know what people mean when they say it hurts so good. That’s really the perfect description. I’ll take it though because my knee already feels better. I feel a bit relieved as I was starting to freak out with the half marathon so soon.

After the run, I ate an entire head of kale for lunch in the form of kale chips. Salty and addictive. Bread + goat cheese + sliced chicken apple sausage and leftover butternut squash soup.

A healthy lunch was no accident because I’d been scheming my afternoon snack since before breakfast.

microwaving it for 3x as long (it just wasn’t fully “baked” in 30-40 seconds)

Since I made the cake with pumpkin, I wanted a pumpkin frosting too. It was super simple:

1 tablespoon cream cheese

2 tablespoons pumpkin

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Mix it all up and frost.

I’m not sure you can get anything more delicious than that for all of a minute and a half baking time.

I don’t know what it is, but the second we hit October, I became a tea drinking, dessert eating maniac. In addition to my 2 morning cups of coffee, I drink tea in the afternoon and at night after dinner usually accompanied by some sort of sweet. This could get dangerous when this half marathon is over and I’m not training at the same intensity!

For dinner, we tried out a Newman’s thin crust pizza that I had a coupon for with some sautéed collard greens on the side. I’ve become obsessed with collard greens all of a sudden and could pretty much eat them every night. I just sauté them with olive oil, one garlic clove and lemon. Easy, quick and tastes so clean & healthy. That sounds like a weird way to describe a vegetable but hopefully you get what I mean.

The pizza was ok. I don’t normally buy frozen pizzas and here’s the reason why: I could eat the entire thing myself! The box said there were 3 servings per pie at 240 calories a serving. Um, I eat about 3 times that many calories for dinner. The crust was super thin so even making it into 2 servings, (we split it down the middle) it was barely enough food for me. That’s ok though because it just became an excuse for a couple of these later on.

that setup for the cake photos is incredible. I’m always scared to mess too much with baking recipes bc it’s “chemistry” and just one ingredient being off can result in terribleseness (ask Jon, he’s eaten plenty of weird things I’ve attempted to make) (yes, I’m making that a word).

I had some crazy bad ITB issues right before the marathon. I had it worked on by my massage therapist friend and my chiro friend. The chiro said to foam roll, but be careful because you can over foam roll and that’s worse. JUST foam roll the attachment points (knee and hip), but not the band itself.

I need to make kale chips more often. They are an awesome and easy way to get veggies in. I love the look of your pumpkin cake. I will def try it out. Cold weather definitely makes me crave dessert too.

I know what you mean! When Fall hits I want sweets! I think it might not only the weather but the lack of fresh fruit. When there is more fruit I am less tempted to eat too much dessert and dessert is everywhere in the Fall!

The changes you made to the chocolate cake sound delicious! I happen to have some leftover pumpkin sitting in my fridge and I definitely know what I’ll be using it for!
I have yet to make dough balls but I need to! I think having them around might be slightly dangerous, though. (Not that that’s ever stopped me from making something before!)
Glad to hear that your knee is healing! You’ll be fully recovered before you know it. :)

I have recently acquired a roller and I am not sure if it’s helping yet, but it feels good. So what the heck, right? Can’t be a bad thing.

I definitely want sweets more when the weather is cold. Sweets, soups, and carbs. I know I don’t crave salads or smoothies as often, that’s for sure. I’m not even sure cold is the factor, because in California right now it’s still pretty warm during the day. Might be a lack of daylight thing.

Meet Gina

Hi, I'm Gina. I like food. A lot. That's what you'll find here with the occasional smattering of fitness & sarcasm. Learn More →

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